Trend Talks 3: PropTech Technologies

Curious Futures are so close to us

The top 3 technologies which 417 respondents believed were likely to cause maximum disruption in Construction and Real Estate are smart building technologies, pre-fabrication (modular construction) and Building Information Modelling which underpins the creation of Digital Twins both of buildings, and of whole cities.

Furthermore, the world’s largest 3D printed building was completed in Dubai in Dec. 2019 by the robotic construction company Apis Cor. And it took just 3 workers and a printer to build it. Dubai municipal authorities have stated that 25 % of all new buildings will be constructed using 3D printing technology by 2030. They believe the technique could reduce the amount of labour by 70 %, overall project costs by 90 %, and duration of construction by 80 %.

On 07 Jul. 2020 FlandersToday officially announced the 1st 3D printed multi-storey house in the world which is located in Anwerp province, the Netherlands. The house was built in just 15 days. ‘That is the fasted period in which a house has ever been created with a 3D printer,’ says FlandersToday. They add ‘Building a house like this lowers CO2 emissions by some 50%, and saves an enormous amount of time.’ 

And that’s following the 1st 3D printed steel bridge in the world installed across a canal in Amsterdam. The bridge is make and installed by the Dutch robotics company MX3D.

Just as mentioned above, technologies must have a huge environmental impact in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, saving limited natural resources, and cleaning the polluted air, water, and ground. We will talk more about Impact in PropTech in Trend Talks 4. But here it is worth mentioning at least the huge impact HVAC systems can have on purifying air in buildings in a pandemic situation we have been recently in. Even in this case the solutions are created by PropTech technologies.

What else is on the horizon?

On 29 Jul. 2020 PlaceTech announced that the UK government has invested GBP 1.6M to test a Construction production control room concept in complex and challenging projects. ‘The solution, called the AEC Production Control Room, will be led by Mace alongside a number of partners, UCL, Imperial College London, 3DRepo, Mission Room and eviFile,’ says PlaceTech.

Real Estate companies will also need to understand how to market their products and services in a world of audio and voice search.

Smart Home technologies are the PropTech sector with the highest spike in sales in recent years. It is dominated by voice assistants. Smart speakers market grew with 55.4 % for 2nd Q 2019 only. You can figure out what’s on an annual basis. 

MIT robotics spin-off Ori has lately received funding by Alphabet and IKEA to develop motorized furniture that will turn in just seconds a wardrobe into a bed and a sofa into a dining table. But this is not enough for IKEA. The company plans its future in another area related to PropTech – Modular Construction.

In just a few years a trend we observe now in Smart Buildings will become the industry standard. Completely new real estate types will be built, and all of them will serve and support tech platforms, e.g. data centres, specialized logistic buildings for online distribution hubs, click & collect shops, Amazon locker sites, co-working spaces for tech companies that use extremely fast broadband services, drone hubs … 

What’s the place of SEE on the world’s PropTech Map? And how’s Bulgaria positioned?

In Bulgaria-as-a-PropTech-Service we presented the strengths of our country in PropTech.

Alongside, we lack expertise in all digital technologies which are recognized as having the most disruptive influence on Construction and Real Estate.

How does Bulgaria perform in Digital Twins and Smart Cities?

Recent years Sofia municipality aims at positioning the city as a Smart City, but what does it entail? 

What’s the role of Digital Twins in Smart Cities?

What is that we don’t know about Smart Cities? How the economically strongest countries build their smart cities, and what can we learn from them?

These are just a few questions to showcase that it’s high time for Bulgarian construction and real estate players (companies, universities, state and municipal authorities) to become aware of how PropTech already transforms our future. And the future is just at the door.

What will you learn about PropTech technologies at the 1st international PropTech Conference in the SEE and Bulgaria?

Conference Part ►

04.11 | 10:30 – 11:00 AM EET

Re-Imagining Cities with Digital Twins: at the intersection of proptech, real estate & smart cities | Chungha Cha, Co-Founder & Chair, Re-Imagining Cities Foundation, South Korea

04.11 | 11:20 – 11:40 AM EET

PropTech Insights by EPRA /European Public Real Estate Association/ | Iskren Marinov, Membership & PropTech Manager, the UK/Belgium

04.11 | 12:20 – 12:40 PM EET

Opportunities in PropTech in the UK and the barriers to adoption | Sammy Pahal

Managing Director, UK PropTech Association, the UK

04.11 | 12:40 – 13:00 PM EET

Driving Transformation in UK Construction |  Alison Nicholl FRSA, Head of Constructing Excellence, Building Research Establishment (BRE), the UK
The UK

05.11 | 10:00 – 10:20 AM EET

Proptech Technologies – Customer experience with Realpad | Jakub Licak, Business Development Manager, Realpad Software, Czech Rep.

05.11 | 11:00 – 11:20 AM EET

Disruptive technologies in Commercial Real Estate | Alexandru Boghiu, Digital and Technology Director, CBRE, Global Republic

Register here.

‘Tech Track’ Hot Topic Ateliers ►

04.11 | 14:30 – 15:00 

Is there a place for Chatbots in Real Estate? | Elitza Stoilova, CEO umni.co

04.11 | 15:00 – 15:30 

EOS Matrix

04.11 | 15:30 – 15:50 

Spaceti

More is coming …

►  Register here.